


Crowded

by maro731



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cameos, M/M, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-12 23:16:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3358943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maro731/pseuds/maro731
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Morning commute is always a crowded affair.<br/>Kakashi does not like the thought of Iruka coming to work squashed up against a bunch of strangers, and this time he's going to <em>do</em> something about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1: Iruka is uncomfortable

“Good morning, sir.”

The pony-tailed young man was one of the few who bothered to greet him each morning, and it was hard not to like his genuine smile. The bus driver always nodded his head and smiled back, before the young man was inevitably pushed along to the middle of the bus by the horde of busy commuters behind him.

More than twenty-five standing people jammed together each morning did not make going to work for the young man any more _appealing_ than it already was, which, frankly on some days, simply _wasn’t_.

Iruka stood, jammed between the puffy jacket of a middle-aged man and the thick coats of two other men on their way to work. He could see through a part of the window, but the view was also less than appealing. The day itself seemed to be disgruntled to be woken up, and everything outside was generally grey.

Everybody else on the bus had the same expression, one of blank resignation. Iruka could recognize a few faces, ones that got on the bus with him at this time every day. The kind, late-middle aged lady, on her way to her receptionist job; Aoba, who lived a few blocks away from him; and the man with blue hair and an eye-patch over his right eye, who was a bodyguard to the CEO of the company next to the exclusive prep school that Iruka worked at. The blue-haired man always looked severely disapproving, but it was hard to take him seriously when he looked so unconventional in the first place.

Another stop. More people squeezed in, and Iruka was pushed along the bus again, this time forcefully pressed almost flush against a man with swept-back grey hair, who was reading a Jashinist book.

“Sorry, sir.” Iruka felt the need to apologize, though he knew it was hardly his fault. This bus was always stuffed full like a can of anchovies.

The grey-haired man took his eyes away from his book, and looked down into the bashful brown eyes of the young man uncomfortably pressed up against his chest.

At his attention, Iruka felt a minor blush dusting his cheekbones. Iruka cursed his facial blood vessels, not for the first time in his life. Iruka wasn’t actually expecting a response to his politeness, but the way the tall stranger was staring into his eyes was making him feel suddenly highly self-conscious, especially considering their two positions.

The delightfully pink tinge on the brown-haired man’s cheeks was so innocent and cute that Hidan felt a strange twinge in his chest. Such a delectable face! The thin scar across his nose made him even more attractive, and extremely intriguing. Hidan couldn’t help but feel a very strong sense that this was no coincidence, and that Jashin was rewarding him for his devotion by sending him this present so nicely wrapped up, as his car broke down in the cold weather this morning, and it was his first time taking this bus.

Iruka saw a strange glint taking over the grey-haired man’s eyes, and he just barely stopped a shiver that suddenly threatened to shake his spine. Iruka quickly looked away, outside the window at the grey sky.

“Is it always this crowded?” The grey-haired man asked in a smooth, low voice.

Iruka felt another shiver coming on at the sound of the voice, and stopped it. The voice sounded humorous and melodic on the surface, but with hints of promise and something darker that Iruka couldn’t name.

Iruka felt his eyes pulled back up to the grey-haired man’s eyes. He immediately became flustered by the hints of darkness and promise reflected there as well. It reminded him too much of Mizuki’s eyes, the way Mizuki used to look at him, before he got locked up.

“Uh, um. Yes, it’s always this crowded at this time,” stuttered Iruka.

“Do you always take this bus at this time?”

“Yes, or at least I try to make it to this one,” said Iruka.

The grey-haired man grinned, and offered his right hand, comically squashed between their chests.

“My name’s Hidan. It’s nice to meet you, it’s my first time on this bus today.”

Iruka blushed again, feeling slightly mortified at this scene happening in the middle of a boring bus journey filled with bored commuters.

“Uh, sorry, I’m Iruka, and it’s nice to meet you too.”

A few persons away, the blue-haired man looked over at them, and glared disapprovingly at Hidan.

The bus was coming to the next stop. Hidan glanced up at the name of the bus stop that came out of the speakers. From that slight movement, Iruka could tell that it was his stop.

“Is this your stop?” asked Iruka politely, giving the man a chance to go away.

Hidan looked back down at Iruka, and grinned again.

“No, I don’t think so- gurrgh” Hidan suddenly was jerked back by the back of his collar.

“What the f—“ started Hidan, turning around, then he stopped, silent.

The man holding the back of Hidan’s collar was the blue-haired man, and he glared at Hidan disapprovingly with his one eye.

“You must be as dumb as you look if you don’t know which stop to get off at, Hidan.”

“Aww come on, Ao! I was just going to-“

The bus stopped and opened the doors, and Iruka was relieved that many people were getting off at this stop, including the blue-haired man – Ao, and Hidan too, dragged by the back of his shirt.

“I’ll see you later, Iruka!” yelled Hidan as he was unceremoniously dragged out of the bus and the doors closed. Hidan was shouting something that sounded like a phone number, but the bus was already on its way, and it wasn’t clear.

Iruka’s whole face felt like it was burning. Hanging his head in mortification, he avoided looking at anyone else until he got off the bus at the next station, which was conveniently located just a hundred meters from Konoha High School where he worked as a literature teacher. Iruka liked to take the bus at this time because it avoided getting on the bus with the students, who usually took the bus closer to the bell-time.

Iruka was just turning the corner into the driveway of Konoha High School, when he saw his colleague’s black sedan roll in slowly.

“Hello, Iruka-sensei,” said Kakashi through his rolled-down window.

“Good morning, Kakashi-sensei,” replied Iruka. Ever since Kakashi started to teach at Konoha High three months ago, he seemed to always arrive at work at exactly the same time as Iruka did.

It had gotten to the stage, Iruka thought with an internal sigh, that Kakashi was starting to grow on him. Iruka had had some doubts as to whether or not he should befriend Kakashi, due to his reading of some very questionable books at school and magically not getting fired, but Kakashi had been, and always was, so friendly that it was hard not to become friends.

It didn’t take long for Iruka to notice that Kakashi seemed a little off today. For one thing, Iruka could hear his voice was a little sombre, less cheerful than usual, and for another, he was staring at Iruka with an intensity to rival Sasuke’s, who was unofficially crowned the Angst King at Konoha.

“How are you today, Kakashi-sensei?” asked Iruka carefully, looking with genuine concern into Kakashi’s dark eye.

Kakashi regarded Iruka seriously, before answering.

“I am feeling fine, thank you, Iruka-sensei. How was your day so far?”

“We haven’t even arrived inside the school building yet, Kakashi-sensei,” laughed Iruka. Kakashi’s surprising questions never failed to catch Iruka off-guard.

Kakashi parked the car, and caught up with Iruka who was walking slowly into the school building.

“But how about the start of your day, for example, how was your breakfast? Or your bus ride?” questioned Kakashi seriously.

“Well, I only had a quick breakfast today, because I ran out of blueberry jam,” started Iruka laughingly.

“Oh no, what a tragedy. Howaboutyour _busride_?” pressed Kakashi.

Iruka looked at him, perplexed. This guy could be so intensely strange. When Kakashi looked unabashedly ready to wait for an answer, Iruka gave in.

“It’s always crammed full of people, as usual. Not that you would know, what with you driving your Audi, Kakashi-san,” said Iruka good-naturedly.

“Hm. I see. Is the bus always full of handsome people?” asked Kakashi.

Iruka looked at him, startled.

“Uh, well. Um no? I don’t think so? Today there was a weird dude reading a Jashinist book, but I was glad because he said he didn’t usually take the bus.”

Kakashi assessed Iruka’s face as he talked. He could tell that Iruka was fighting the urge to blush. Given that Kakashi had made it his morning habit to follow Iruka’s bus on the way to school, and had watched his friend Ao drag Hidan out of the bus this morning, Kakashi felt an intense bout of rage sprouting in his chest. He remembered the scene clearly where Hidan, who was notorious for his perverse stalking of cute young men, shouted Iruka’s name and started yelling his phone number to the moving bus. The crowded bus, Hidan’s perverseness and Iruka’s perplexed and slightly blushing face conjured up in Kakashi’s mind a striking image of a shy Iruka, flustered and pressed right up against that freaking Jashinist, whose balls Kakashi would zap with his Taser gun the next time he saw him. Kakashi quickly shut off his anger and jealousy at all the people who dared to be squashed in the bus with his Iruka, and started calculating when the best time to zap Hidan’s balls would be.

Iruka stood, looking worriedly into Kakashi’s eyes which had gone from a burning intensity to a sudden, ice-cold blankness.

“Kakashi-sensei… Your students are waiting for you,” Iruka said carefully.

Sure enough, Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto, the three Juniors who were in charge of the mathematics club, were standing outside a locked classroom with a bunch of other huddling Freshmen, scowling at their Maths teacher.

“Oi, Kakashi-sensei! You told us you would be here at 7am! I’m freezing my nuts off!!” yelled Naruto. Then turning to Iruka, he yelled with the same strength and enthusiasm, “Good morning, Iruka-sensei!”

“Good morning, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei,” mumbled the other students, shivering in the cold, grey morning.

Iruka grinned.

“Morning, Naruto. If you were wearing something other than the summer uniform, maybe you wouldn’t be so cold.”

“I only had this one that was clean,” grinned Naruto back. “But it wouldn’t have mattered if Kakashi-sensei was here on time and had let us into the classroom!”

Kakashi was irritated at being faced with the responsibility of being in charge of the Maths Club, and such a _loud_ club it was, when he had so much calculations of his own to do. Namely, the strength with which he would tase a Jashinist’s balls.

“Maa, I think I left something back in the car.”

Iruka looked at his abruptly retreating colleague who was walking away amidst the groans of all the students outside his classroom, but shrugged it off as another of his strange quirks.

“Come on, kids, you can come warm up in my classroom until he gets back,” said Iruka to the group as he walked to his classroom.

Iruka smiled as they all walked together to his warm classroom, with Naruto cheerfully chattering away, occasionally throwing insults at Sasuke and getting hit by Sakura.


	2. Kakashi is mad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iruka looks great wet.

Kakashi stalked back to the car, and started to dial a number on his cell as soon as he closed the car door. The call was answered after five rings.

“…what,” answered a low voice.

“Ao, what is Hidan doing, riding public transport?”

“His car broke down. It was the only way for me to keep an eye on him,” Ao’s voice was already annoyed.

“Why don’t you drive? You have a nice car,” reasoned Kakashi.

“Hatake. What do you want,” snapped Ao. “I don’t have time to play your stupid word games. Terumi-sama has a very busy day today which means that I have an extra busy day.”

Ao’s day had only started 10 minutes ago, when he walked into the topmost office of Kiri Incorporated, an official company that trained and offered one of the most elite bodyguard services in the world. The CEO, Mei Terumi, looked like a young woman in her twenties, with flawless pale skin, mesmerizing eyes and long, wavy red hair, the colour of fresh rust. For all intents and purposes, Mei looked and acted like a strong leader with compassion and diplomatic skill.

Ao knew, however, that she was, in reality, a bat-shit crazy monster, to put it nicely. Her past was carefully hidden over layers and more layers of false histories, but everybody knew that she had been one of the best assassins in the world. Secretly, she also led Kiri Inc.’s underground assassin division, which also got a lot of missions. This two-sided company thus made a _lot_ of money.

Ao was the first to admit that he admired the young woman for being so tough and successful in what he _used_ to think of as a ‘male’ world. He now did not think of “masculinity” in the traditional sense, but now believed in respecting individuals for their tenacity and toughness, whether they were male or female.

However, this respect for Mei, both as his boss and as an individual that had earned her way, had been tainted badly by her bouts of insanity, which seemed to be directed only at him. It was so sudden and so _random_ that nobody noticed it and could thus help him, except maybe for the new intern, Chojuro. Actually, Chojuro couldn’t be counted on because the boy had a pitifully obvious crush on the woman, and probably only noticed how sweet she appeared to be.

Ao himself was the bodyguard for Mei, but in reality he was in charge of gathering and controlling the flow of information in the company. Hidan was a violent young man that Ao had come across during one of his discreet information-gathering trips. Hidan had almost exposed his cover when Ao gave him an offer to work for Kiri Inc.’s underground division, so since a month ago, Ao had been keeping a close eye on Hidan to see how he would shape up at Kiri Inc. So far, the young man had shown promise in assassination, but his lack of intelligence or tact was wearing his nerves very thin.

“Hatake, I will hang up in exactly three seconds if you don’t get to the point. Your time is running out,” Ao said curtly.

Ao’s mobile phone was suddenly crushed into bits, just as Kakashi’s voice was starting to buzz out of the phone’s speakers. Ao then saw his vision filled by a bright rust-colour, before hearing a low female voice laced with menace.

“Shut up, or I’ll kill you.”

Mei then swept past, leaving Ao standing in shock again, not knowing what kept bringing her to say that to him.

#

Kakashi frowned as the call went dead. Ao was his friend from the Secret Service, and he had been Kakashi’s best bet at getting his Taser gun near Hidan’s sensitive sacs, but it looked like things were going to have to get a little more invasive. And since Kakashi never left any loose ends or did anything in half-measures, he decided that he would call a day off from his “teaching job”, which was really a cover for the protection of the Uchiha heir, and he drove off to come up with a plan to get Iruka safe from all the perverts on the bus.

#

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the principal of Konoha High, let out a long puff of his pipe from his balcony as he watched the black Audi speed away. It was his idea to have Kakashi babysit Uchiha Sasuke, because Kakashi had spent too much time with the Secret Service, and was slowly turning more and more reclusive and emotionally stunted. Spending time with angsty teenagers would surely put things into perspective, and make him value his life more.

It wasn’t the self-absorbed adolescents of the school that made Kakashi appreciate the quality of his life, however. Sarutobi had seen Kakashi’s Audi trail Iruka around in the mornings and in the evenings for the past three months. It was obvious to everyone apart from Iruka that Kakashi was infatuated, no, _smitten_ with him, but Iruka didn’t seem to understand Kakashi’s actions in that way, and without Iruka responding to his frankly weird signals, Kakashi was left unsure and left-footed, resorting to prowling like a territorial tiger to everyone else, and acting like a 3-month-old cocker spaniel to Iruka. Albeit an _insane_ cocker-spaniel.

 _Insane_ seemed to be the word to describe the whole of the country, mused Sarutobi as he blew a smoke ring up into the sky. A red sports car screeched into the staff parking lot, and two men got out; a brunette with distinctive facial scars and a dark blonde chewing on a long acupuncture needle.

“I hate it when you drive, Genma. I really hate it.”

“You can be such a wimp, Raido,” smirked Genma.

Their voices floated up towards Sarutobi’s balcony as the two teachers bickered their way to their classrooms. Sarutobi heard a polite knock, and then the balcony door opened, letting out a spiky haired man with a bandage across his nose.

“Principal Sarutobi, we need your approval for a new substitute teacher for Kakashi-san’s class today,” said Kotetsu. “All the approved substitutes on our school’s list are unavailable so close to the start of the school day.” Kotetsu finished with a scowl.

Sarutobi looked at the short list that Kotetsu had handed him.

“Yakushi Kabuto, Deidara….and Orochimaru?” Sarutobi gazed piercingly at Kotetsu.

“Yes…well, if it was an easy list, we wouldn’t even be asking you for your approval, Sarutobi-sama,” said Kotetsu, flustered. “Orochimaru calls almost every week, making sure that we keep him on the substitute teacher list, though we had never had to consider hiring him up til now.”

Sarutobi sighed, and puffed his pipe slowly, looking at the three names for a minute.

“Give Kabuto a call.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kotetsu hurried off to get the school sorted before the bell rang, and Sarutobi indulged himself with an irritated frown. Kakashi’s wilful behaviour irked more than it did five minutes ago, and Orochimaru’s ongoing interest in his school did not sit well with the old man. He wondered if it was time to renew some friendship ties by buying his former student Tsunade some drinks. He sighed. That was going to cost him more than a few bucks.

#

Iruka had finished setting up his whiteboard for his first class of the day, and the Maths Club who had been taking refuge in his classroom had left to buy some breakfast at the school cafeteria which was now open. He could hear the school filling up with students now that it was close to the start of the day, and Iruka grinned, satisfied with his lesson plans for the week. The grey sky had started to rain, so he got out of his chair and started to walk to the main staffroom for some coffee. Rainy days made him sleepier, and he desperately needed some good coffee. The literature teachers’ staffroom coffee was not that great. Actually, it was alright, but the main staffroom coffee was better. His decision had nothing to do with the fact that he thought Kakashi would most likely be there, lounging around in one of the armchairs.

Iruka had misjudged the heaviness of the rainfall. He quickly became rather wet as he crossed the courtyard quickly, and turned a corner to crash right into a young man with grey hair tied up in a low ponytail.

“Whoa, you alright?” The other man had grabbed Iruka with very fast reflexes, saving him from toppling down backwards onto the wet concrete.

“I’m so sorry. Are you alright?” said Iruka in an alarmed rush. It really was not his day, today. First the freaky Jashinist on the bus, then getting wet and running headfirst into what looked like a new teacher. Way to go with first impressions, Iruka.

“Of, of course, I’m fine. Here, we’re both getting wet,” Kabuto said as he ushered Iruka under an awning. Kabuto couldn’t bring himself to take his hand off the brown-eyed man’s arm. He had felt a jolt of electricity when the brown-haired man had looked into his eyes worriedly and said things in the sweetest voice he had ever heard.

As Iruka hastily introduced himself and apologized again, Genma smirked on the other side of the wall, looking out at the two men through a window in the main staffroom.

“Look Raido, someone’s fallen for Iruka again. That makes it, what, 3 people this week?”

Anko, the purple-haired teacher in charge of the Science department, cackled from her armchair near Genma.

“Hahaha, he’s so clueless. Look at him, he can’t even tell that the new guy keeps looking at his wet shirt.”

Raido felt bad for his friend, but couldn’t help but smile.

“I bet when those two get in here, the new guy’s going to look at Iruka’s tight ass no less than 5 times before Iruka leaves,” declared Anko.

“Iruka’s only stopping for some coffee, there might not be enough time for Kabuto to check out his ass 5 times. I bet 3,” joined in Suzume, the curly-haired English teacher.

“Nah, I can’t get my day started unless I’ve checked it out at least 6 times so I’d say 6!” yelled Genma.

The staffroom was busy and loud, sorting out last-minute bets, when Iruka and Kabuto walked in.

The sudden silence made Kabuto nervous, but Iruka was accustomed to having the staff behave this way around him. They were always extremely helpful and kind, so Iruka had long ago taken this phenomenon as a sign of friendly respect between colleagues, and casually greeted people as he went to the coffee machine, and action that consequently casually presented his rear to the rest of the staffroom.

Kabuto’s eyes were pulled down, almost magnetically, to Iruka’s slim-fit, dark suit pants, pants that were slightly wet and thus hugging the sensei’s butt ever so slightly more than it would be deemed completely appropriate.

Kurenai, the dark-haired Art teacher rolled her eyes and made a mark in her notebook.

Iruka twisted his body slightly to the side to call over Kabuto, which also twisted the damp material of his pants over his perfect rear, accentuating the small, perky and _tight_ swell of the cheeks.

There was a muffled cough, and Kabuto turned to see a tall, skinny man with round sunglasses clutch a tissue to his nose, which was slowly staining red.

Anko laughed and punched Raido gleefully as she grabbed some money from his wallet after fishing it out of his pocket.

Maybe teachers at prestigious high schools were weird, thought Kabuto, as he turned back to Iruka, who was still saying something to him, though he’d be damned if he could understand anything, when his voice was so creamy and mesmerizing. Kabuto just shifted his glasses on his nose and laughed politely, giving the perfect specimen of male buttocks another quick glance.

Genma grinned, and sauntered over to chat up Iruka, as was his usual morning routine. Suzume moved in for some Iruka-action too, giving Genma a challenging look, and soon it was open season on Iruka.

Asuma, another Maths teacher, came into the commotion in the staffroom and fell into the armchair next to Kurenai’s and grinned at her.

“Where’s Kakashi? Poor kid. He’s going to throw a fit if he finds out that he missed a wet-Iruka day,” said Asuma, looking amused.

“I don’t know, I thought he was coming to school with Iruka today – oh hello, this is Asuma, and I’m Kurenai,” said Kurenai kindly to Kabuto who was being led around the room by Iruka.

Iruka chatted with them for a bit, then continued introducing Kabuto to other people in the staffroom, before taking his leave.

“I should get going. I’ll see you guys at lunch. Good luck,” said Iruka, as he left the room.

The adults in the staffroom unashamedly leered at the sensei’s retreating bottom, as they themselves started to wander out of the staffroom to their respective classes.

#

“What – what the hell! What the fuck! Hey! _Heeeeey_!!” yelled Hidan at the top of his lungs, lunging around the conference room on the third floor of the Kiri Inc. building. He could see all the people of the whole floor working on their desks, some chatting near the copier machine, but none bothered to glance in his direction.

It didn’t stop Hidan from continuing to yell out in increasing desperation, yells becoming panicked screams, as some silver-haired psycho brandishing a Taser gun stalked him mercilessly around the trashed conference room, eyes trained on him with fierce, unwavering insanity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gearing up for some of the _good stuff_ pretty soon! Hope you enjoyed this rather long, introductory chapter. This story is, and will most likely remain, cracky and fluffy... with a slow build-up.

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me if you think it's worth continuing!  
> Cameos, cameos everywhere. I'm thinking of making it a huge man-fest later on if it continues, with Kakashi trying to stave off everyone from his precious Iruka. lol...


End file.
